Using Cull Tags The Right Way

I did not know this, now I do.

Vikings Started Camp Today!

I Hardly Knew Ye

Good thing I got this photo of that Stanley Phantom in a jumpin bullhead, because this was one of two it hooked.  The second one dived into the rocks and broke my line.  Total freak occurrence.  I don't know maybe a pike tried to take it out of the bass' mouth.  All I know is I had a pretty good bass on, it dove hard into the rocks and then my line broke while it was pulling hard.  I thought maybe the Speed Clip came off, but my line was broken.  The bass never tried to throw the lure, maybe it got eaten by a big pike, who knows.

I also got a small toothy bullhead on the purple/yellow Phantom.  I got this silver bullhead on a Chigger Craw.

10.5"

 I also got an 8.5" jumper on the Chigger Craw.

I missed two hits at the Culvert and didn't get anything at Jenny's..

 I fished from 5:50AM to 8:20AM

My Thoughts On Rush Lake(Ottertail)

Tomorrow is our 3rd Baxter Bass Snatcher Tournament of the year.  The club has only fished the lake twice and the last time was 10 years ago.  The lake then kicked out 19lb bags to win, but not many limits.  From what I saw in my pre-fish the bass fishing has improved on the lake.  I am not totally sure of how my boater Adam plans to fish this one.  I'm not sure he knows.  He has only fished one tournament and only got 1 fish in that one.  He pre-fished the lake a couple of weeks ago and did catch some fish.  Basically I am setting up to go heavy for the reeds, but I think Adam is thinking weedlines.

Here are the Rods I'm Bringing
7'10" H Jig
7'6" H Jig
7'3" H Hollow Body Frog
7'3" MH Horny Toad
7'3" MH Spinnerbait, Buzzbait, Dippers
7' H Texas Rigged Craw Tubes or Big Worms
6'8" M Topwater, Chatterjigs, Crankbaits
5'6" Spinning Dock Rod

If I get a limit, I'll be happy.

My New Stanley's Jigs Phantom's Catch Fish

Here are two of my 3 new Stanley Phantom's that I won on Ebay.  The other one is bone color, which I already have one of, so I left it in it's package and put it with my extra's in the Tackle Warehouse.  I didn't have to wait long and I was pulling in a bullhead, toothy bullhead that is.

I switched to the purple/yellow one and threw it under the bridge.  I missed the first fish that hit it, but on the same cast I  had this fish crush it.

16.5"

I also got a 16" and 12" under the bridge on a Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.  I got a 15" bass on a black Horny Toad at the Culvert.

I fished from 6:15AM to 8:15AM.  I did miss a couple hits on the Craw Tube at the GOMH as well.

I Saw This On Facebook

For a while now I have been thinking about doing a post on fish pictures and this picture gave me the perfect opportunity.  If you are familiar with my pictures with fish you can tell I prefer a picture with a fish and me in it, to just taking a picture of the fish.  The same goes for other peoples fish pictures.  So do you prefer to see just a fish or the fish with a person?

Black & Decker Tackle Wrecker Strikes Again

I was pre-fishing for my next tournament on Rush Lake near Ottertail when I had a big dogfish hit my Aruku Shad.  Can you tell?  Can't say I've ever caught a bowfin on a rattlebait before.  It was raining so I didn't get a picture of the fish.  I would say it was about 26.5 inches long.  It put up a tremendous fight and got all tangled in the net.

It was raining so I didn't get a picture.

Big Bass & Breaking in My New St. Croix 7' H

20" Mad Maxx Frog

All it takes is one bite to turn an extremely mediocre morning into a great one.  Today I got that bite.  She hit the "Big Sexy" and fortunately didn't take me into the pads like it could have.  She was barely hooked.

To that point in the morning, a good hour and a half into fishing, I missed a jumper and a toothy on the Stanley Phantom and got one 14.5" jumper on a watermelon/red Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.

In the picture you can see my new and vastly improved St. Croix Avid 7' Heavy.  It's lighter than the previous rod and actually loads a little bit when I cast, which the previous rod that was a total broomstick did not really do.  Casting distance is improved and I can now  use it for pitching, which the previous rod didn't do well at all.  It's not quite as powerful as the previous rod, but I'll take that trade off as it still has plenty of power.  I also think it's gonna be quite a bit more sensitive, but I really didn't get enough bites to gauge that very well.  Overall I'm very impressed.

Note- My previous Avid 7' Heavy was a pre-IPC technology rod.

That was all I got at the Grumpy Old Man Hole this morning.  I got a couple of nice fish (16",15") on the Horny Toad at the Culvert and got a total dink at the Inlet on Sullivan on a black/blue Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.  That was it.  I fished from 5:45 to 9AM.  Quite a change from the past two morning where I caught a bunch of small fish.

Yesterday Morning
2 Days Ago

101 Bass On the Stanley Phantom This Year!!!

106 fish total when you count the pike.  Most of them came on this color, but I've got a few on the white one and bone color as well.  I've been watching for them on Ebay, but none have come up.  I wish I would have put them on my saved searches years ago.  I've been keeping an eye on Spooks and  I think I may have found them under another companies name that sold them for the saltwater market.  That would explain the saltwater hooks. I think that company changed the way they made them, then went out of business.

BAM! I just did an Ebay search under Stanley Jigs and it turned up 3 of them.  Two in colors I've never seen.  The Bait Monkey was all over it.

They Missed Me!

After not getting out for more than a week I headed to the GOMH this morning, arriving just after 6AM.  I put on the Stanley Phantom and got a bite on my first cast.  I was a little rusty and he got off in the lily pads.  Not to worry I got a fish on my next cast as well.

 I pretty much crushed them on the Phantom getting 10 jumpin bullheads and 1 toothy bullhead before they finally stopped.  The biggest jumper was this 15.25"

I got a couple of small ones on a Horny Toad and 4 small one's on a Zoom Super Fluke and 1 small one on a Craw Tube.  I then moved to the SW side.  I got a 14.25" on the Horny Toad, a 15.5, my biggest fish of the morning, and another 11.5 dink on the Craw Tube.

I then went to the culvert and got a 12.5 and 2x 15"'s on the Horny Toad.  I was done at 8:20AM

23 Bass
1 Pike
Biggest 6 bass
15.5", 15.25", 15", 15",15",14.75"

Power Pole Micro Anchor Has Me Interested

This won Best In Show at ICAST.  How much are they gonna cost?


Answer: $595 Retail and I'm not sure if that is with the spike included.  That's a bit steep for my blood at the moment.

Fishing Forward Marshal's For KVD

He also Marshaled for Duckett and Williamson at the recently completed Elite Series tournament out of La Crosse WI.  He did an excellent write up with good pictures. Go check it out.

Derby Has A New Big Bass Leader

Check out what's going on at the Derby.  I'll be adding new fish the next few days.

Retiring A "Big Sexy".

Last night after getting the 19.25" and 14.75" on this "Big Sexy", it turned into a sinker. So today I retired it after 4 years and probably 25 plus fish.  It caught me some nice one's over those years.  Thanks for the memories.

I had a fish smash the "Big Sexy" I replaced it with in the same spot I got the big one last night.  I didn't hook it and I had another fish swirl on it, but not hit it.

Derby Fish For Me Tonight

She choked it!

Not one good photo.  I hit the micro button

Tonight I got this 19.25" slob at the Culvert.  That will put me over 20lbs in the Derby.  For some reason I decided to throw the Tru Tungsten Mad Maxx frog first and I was rewarded with that choice. I got a dink pike on the Hack Jig and had 14" or so bass jump me off.  I got a 15" or so jumpin bullhead at the GOMH on the Mad Maxx;  It now sinks pretty quickly, so I'm going to retire it.  I missed a couple of hits on the Mad Maxx as well.  John and his daughter were at the GOMH and got at least 4 jumpers.  A couple of teenagers were fishing at the GOMH as well.  He had a small jumper and golden bullhead in his pail.

This Mornings Sunrise

I also fished at the GOMH in the morning. I got 3 small jumpers on the Frenzy Popper and missed a couple as well.  A couple small jumpers on the Fluke and a 15.5" on the Mad Maxx.  I also fished at the Culvert and Inlet but didn't get anything.

Kramer Gone Fishing Writes About The Frenzy Popper

The curious case of the Frenzy Popper

(click on the link to read the story George wrote)
Ah yes the Berkley Frenzy Popper.  A lure that kind of fell out of favor with me the last couple of years.  I only got 6 bass on them in 2012 and only 4 on them in 2011.  This year I've already got 20 fish on them and I would probably have a lot more if the Stanley Phantom wasn't catching them so well this year.  Go read George's piece.

My 1st Broken Rod Post

I didn't realize I only published this at the Fishing Log Blog, not here at mother ship blog.

I wrote this on 6-26-13

Kind of had a feeling this might happen thanks to my cat climbing were it shouldn't have been. He shut the Explorers rear window on it and 2 others. I'm hoping the heavy rod makes it through the season at least. The good thing is they were all St. Croix Avid's, so I can replace them with a new rod at more than 50% off what a new one costs. I'll have this rods replacement before my next tournament.

17.5"

I had caught this jumpin' bullhead, my best of the morning, and 10 others on it between this morning and my last two outings before the rod cracked and broke in two. 

 It was a good morning of fishing.  I hit the GOMH, the PRO Culvert, and the inlet getting fish at each and missing a bunch as well. I arrived at the GOMH at 5:50AM.  I started off getting them on topwater on a Lucky Craft Kelly J (12.5"), a Frenzy Popper (2x14", 15") and the Stanley Phantom (2x13", 3x14", 15", 16" and two little toothy bullheads).  Then I got them on the Fluke until the rod broke (2x14", 17.5",11.75" and a small toothy bullhead).  I got 1 (14") and yet another small toothy on a Chigger Craw.  I left to go to the culvert around 9AM.

There I missed my first several hits on a Horny Toad before finally getting a 13", I also got 1 (14") on a Chigger Craw and 1 (14") on a Subwart in the culvert.

I then headed to the Inlet and missed two good fish on the Grass Pig before connecting with a 15.5".  That was my last fish of the morning.  I quit at 11AM.

Best 6 Fish
17.5", 16", 15.5", 15", 15" and 14.25"
20 bass Total and 4 Pike

Broke The Heavy

Well looks like I'm replacing all 3 rods.  I broke the 7' Heavy St. Croix rod fighting a little northern that got down in the weeds.  The rod cracked and broke in two.

Here is the window the cat tried to climb out on resulting on the widow shutting on the 3 rods.

Unfortunately I caught the cat instead of the window. I was really hoping the Heavy St. Croix would make it.  I'm glad I found out now, so I can have the rod back by my next tournament.

Fishing sucked. I didn't get anything at the culvert, and the "new new juice" had two guys fishing it.  They were keeping some jumpin bullheads and letting some go. They were also getting some orange bullheads.  I got 2 jumpers on the SW side and that toothy that I broke the rod on.  I fished from 10AM to 11:45AM.

Great Point By Kumar on Palaniuk DQ

If I'm Rapala – a MN company – I'm going to chew out MN's head of fisheries because my guy missed out on potentially millions of dollars worth of exposure due to a rule that should've died round about the time T Rex did. Sheesh.

Mission Lake Full Tournament Recap Up

I'm not even gonna bother posting it here, my day was so poor.   Mission Lakes has my number.

You can read about it if you want over at Bass Pundit's Tourny HQ.  It might be of interest to some because I fished with the tournament winner.